Romney Suffers Worst Home State Defeat Since John Frémont in 1856

Election Night was painful for Mitt Romney, both nationally and locally. Not only did Romney lose his bid for the White House, he lost his home state of Massachusetts by an enormous margin to President Barack Obama.

Most experts expected Obama to carry the Bay State, owing to its long history of supporting Democrats. But few could have imagined that Romney, who served as governor of the state until just five years ago, would have gotten creamed.

The tally: Obama 61%, Romney 37.5%. The Republican barely out performed John McCain, the U.S. senator from Arizona, who pulled in 36% of the Massachusetts vote four years ago. By contrast, President Obama this year won his home state of Illinois by more than 16%, 57.3% to 41.1%.

Romney’s home-state defeat was the worst since Republican John C. Frémont, who in 1856 received only 18.8% of the vote in his home state of California. Fremont didn’t even place second, finishing behind Democrat James Buchanan and former president Millard Fillmore, who ran for the American Party.

The third-biggest home state loss, according to Eric Ostermeier of Smart Politics, took place in 1920 when Democrat James Cox of Ohio lost the state by 19.9% to Warren Harding. However, Harding was also from Ohio.